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U.S. Grants Visa to Mariela Castro but Denies Visit by Cuban Academics

Denial of visas: “arbitrary, shameful and cowardly”

The Obama administration granted a visa this week to the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro but rejected visas for nearly a dozen other Cubans to attend an academic conference in California, angering both conservative Cuban American leaders and American scholars seeking to improve U.S.-Cuban academic ties.

Among American scholars who specialize in Latin America, the decision to deny visas to other prominent Cubans invited to the conference — including several who visited the United States last year — aroused forceful criticism.

“This is arbitrary, shameful and cowardly,” said Philip Brenner, a professor and Cuba expert at American University. “Many of these people are prominent scholars who have a history of advocating improved relations with the United States. All of them have received visas in the past. Why are they now suddenly being turned down on the grounds that they are a potential danger to the United States?”.

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Ted Piccone, an official in the Brookings Institution’s foreign policy program, said he was mystified by the administration’s criteria in choosing which Cubans may visit the United States. Brookings is hosting a Cuban historian and Communist Party member, Eusebio Leal, at an event in the District on Friday.

“I find it baffling. I wish I knew what their thinking was,” Piccone said. He noted that among the Cubans denied visas was Carlos Alzugaray, a former ambassador to the European Union, who was invited to a meeting at Brookings next week. Another barred figure was Rafael Hernandez, a scholar who has taught at Harvard and Columbia universities.

A copy of one visa denial letter, issued last week and obtained by The Washington Post, stated that Soraya Castro Marino, who directs a study institute in Havana and was a visiting scholar at Harvard in 2010, was found ineligible this time because her presence would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” All rejected applicants reportedly received the same letter.

Mariela Castro, who directs Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education in Havana, has become a prominent advocate for gay rights. Although detractors see her as a mouthpiece for the government, others see her in a more favorable light.

“She is a champion for human rights. She is not a critic of the regime, but she is an outspoken critic of its policies,” Brenner said.

The secrecy of the visa process and the apparent contradictions in how applicants are judged make the system vulnerable to charges of politicalmanipulation

State Department officials said they would process the remaining Cuban visa applications in the next several days.